Vaginal douches are liquid preparations for douching the vagina for an indeterminate period to achieve a cleaning, soothing and refreshing effect, to eliminate odor, to relieve slight irritation, to reduce the number of pathogenic microorganisms, to change the pH and hence stimulate the growth of a normal vaginal flora, to achieve an astringent effect, and to reduce the surface tension to achieve a mucolytic or proteolytic effect. Vaginal douches are frequently used for intravaginal contraception. They have also been proposed as a method for influencing the sex of a baby by using acid or basic douches before coitus (SHETTLES, L.B. (1970): Intern. J. Gynaecol. Obstetrics 8.643).
The antiseptic properties of the plant-containing essential oil are generally attributed to the volatile compounds contained therein (TYLER, V.E. et al.: Pharmacognosy, 7th Edition, Lea-Febiger, Philadelphia 1976, p. 137). In low concentrations, camomile oil has a bacteriostatic and bactericidal effect on gram-positive pathogens and is characterized by a remarkable fungicidal effect against Candida albicans (AGGAG, E. and T. YOUSEF (1972): Planta Med. 22, 140). In vivo tests to compare the lipophilic constituents of camomile florets have shown (-)-alpha-bisabolol to have the strongest bacteriostatic effect (SZABO-SZALONTAI et al. (1975): Pharm. Ztg. 120, 982; Dtsch. Apoth. Ztg. 115. 912).
It has been reported that a non polar fraction obtained from camomile florets has an inhibitory effect on the growth of microorganisms isolated from the vaginal secretion. In this case the camomile florets were extracted with ethanol under reflux, the extract was filtered, and the solvent was evaporated. The pasty residue was then worked up several times with cold hexane. The residue was dissolved in hot methanol, filtered and the solution evaporated to dryness. This extract does not contain any flavones and shows no bacteriostatic effect (TURBARO, A. et al.; Europ. Pat. App. No. 0096016 dated Jun. 1, 1983).
The ligular florets of camomile mainly contain flavones, for example apigenin-7-glucoside, apigenin-7-acetyl glucoside and apigenin and other polar compounds. Volatile constituents (=essential oil) of the camomile are mainly found in the tubular florets of the flower head, whereas only small amounts thereof have been found in the ligular florets.